Ok, so it is Dec. 22^nd. Only about a week to go before the new year. I know that New Year’s resolutions are supposed to start with the New Year, but this time around I thought I would start a bit early. And I am making mine now.

Every year as the year comes to a close, we (or at least I do) tend to reflect. We reflect over what has gone on throughout the year, and maybe I am just speaking for myself on this one, but I also tend to look back the past couple years as well and see how far I have come.

I look back to when I was getting ready to move from Tokyo to the U.S. It has been almost five years (WOW! I can’t believe it has already been half a decade!) since I moved to the U.S. So much progress has been made, and yet so much still has to be done.

About two months before I was leaving Japan, I went to a well-known palmreader. Now I am probably the LAST person to ever go to something like that. I just don’t like feeling that I can’t have any say over my fate… and I feel that sometimes people who rely on palmreaders, psychics, etc tend to hand over the responsibility of their lives to these people that they don’t even really know that well.

However this time a very good friend of mine in Tokyo (who is also a skeptic) told me that she wanted to introduce me to this wonderful palmreader and she wanted me to get my palm read before I left on my new journey.

So I made an appt and went. It was interesting to say the least. When I arrived in her cramped apt, I took my shoes off and came in. She told me to sit down and press my palms together until she told me to stop. So I did. And then she took my right hand and started reading.

She told me that until now I had been on the express train and had been going nonstop. But for the next four or five years I would be on the "local train" in my life. (I chuckled at the “local/express train” references…guess it makes sense though. It’s a cultural thing. For Japanese, trains are a BIG part of their everyday life, so something that they can all relate to) She went on to tell me that it would be a rough and frustrating period, because I was so used to being on the “express train". But it would be a very important time as well. She said that during this time, I would be sowing all kinds of seeds, and it would take the four or five years for me to see any results from my planting. She also warned me that there would be quite a few opportunities that would come my way, that ordinarily I would not even give a second look, but she said that I needed to really examine and think about all the chances that were part in front of me, because some of these would turn out to be blessings in disguise.

And sure enough…I have been on that doggone local ever since leaving Japan.

Has it been frustrating? Ummm, YEP! 

Has it been character building? Ummmm....YEP, MOST of the time.

Am I ready to hop back onto the express train again?  HECK YEAH!

The past four/five years has probably been one of the toughest (and yet in many ways awarding) times I have ever had. It has been all about rebuidling, and YES, there HAS been a lot of seed planting.

It has been a time of living hand to mouth pretty much. Barely making it past the rent and bills every month. And there have been times, I won't lie, I have had to rely on the goodness of family and friends.

But I feel the winds of the express. Bought my ticket and I am standing at the platform and waiting. And I feel that train a-comin.

So I geuss the question is...do I believe in what the palmreader said? Well, honestly, palmreader or not, I think that this slow period in my life was bound to happen. 

I have been adjusting to a new country, city, lifestyle, job situation. So the first couple years are always a bit slow.

So I will admit, I take most of what she said with a grain of salt. 

However this part of the reading I DO agree with. And like I said, I am so very ready for my ride on the express train.

SO 2013...here I COME!